"'All right! That's enough! I meant it both ways. I meant it any way you want to take it. I meant you don't have enough of nothing period."' (Mrs. Harding)
""Enough of anything, my bright little child."' (Dale) (pg. 159)
This brief conversation between Dale and his wife, Vera, sums up their relationship. First of all, Dale constantly critiques his wife for her poor sense of grammar and knowledge of the English language. She uses 'nothing' instead of 'anything', and 'didn't' instead of 'nothing'. Instead of listening to the real point of Vera's message, Dale tries to belittle her by correcting her grammar. He emphasizes her mistakes and then calls her pet-names, to seem superior to her. Instead of trying to improve on what Vera is saying, Sale tries to defend himself by picking on his wife. Also, Vera tries to belittle Dale in their relationship. He speech is harsh and sassy, as well as condescending. She complains about the way that Harding handles what he has and how he lives his life. Her criticisms then start his defense again, making a circle of belittling each other. Just one brief conversation shows the relation of Dale and Vera, and their constant struggle to be superior to each other.
"'The thing is, no one ever wants another one [EST]. You... change"' (159). Harding was describing what EST does to a person when McMurphy first went near the Shock Shop room. Although Harding always tries to see how the treatments on the ward are always therapeutic and help the patients, Harding struggles to remain 100 percent positive about EST. In fact, he gets rather worked up about this. By this, Harding was saying that EST was an experience someone only hopes to have once, or none at all. Even though EST may help certain patients, maybe it is not helpful at all. For example, Chief Broom has gotten EST over 200 times. Maybe the reason why he needs so many shocks is to fix the previous ones. Also, another sign that EST may not work is that Harding implies that EST may be random; sometimes it works and other times it doesn't. He makes the comparison to a carnival wheel: sometimes you win and other times you lose and have to play again. By this, Harding proves that sometimes the EST works while other times it doesn't so patients have top try again.
"' Now lobotomy, that's chopping away part of the brain?''' "'You're right again''' ... "'I didn't think the nurse had the say-so on this kind of thing."' '"She does indeed" (164-165).
During this conversation between Harding and McMurphy, McMurphy learns about the seriousness of a lobotomy. He not only learns what it is, but learns that Big Nurse has the power to make any patient get one. This makes McMurphy seriously reconsider his plan about testing the Big Nurse. He realizes that if he does not shape up, the nurse has the power to make him get a lobotomy. Also, this scene could be foreshadowing for the end of the book. This may be because without the threatening on a lobotomy, the book would not really change. They already feel scared enough of getting EST, so why add something else? This conversation may be seen as a warning to McMurphy to behave but might as well be a warning to the reader of what is to come.
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